Eleven Months
by Onyx Sprita
Summary: Fletchyrie drabbles set in the eleven months between The Faceless Ones and Dark Days. (You have no idea how long it took me to come up with that title.)
1. Maths

**I never thought the day would come when I would be writing Fletchyrie fanfiction :L  
****Sorry in advance for the crap characterization and everything. I'll continue this if you want me to :)  
**

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It had been two months since Skulduggery had been dragged through the portal, and Valkyrie had been thinking of little else. At first, she'd been in the depths of despair - she'd just cried in her room, unable to talk to anybody - but now her determination was the only thing keeping her going. She ate, slept and washed when necessary. The rest of her time was consumed by skull-hunting. She was convinced they were going to get him back. She wouldn't allow herself to even think otherwise.

But there were a few distractions.

For instance, at one point Tanith got it into her head that Valkyrie needed to keep up with her education and forced her to do some maths homework while she was resting at Gordon's.

'My reflection is there for a reason, you know,' Valkyrie pointed out grumpily.

'Yeah, it's there for _one_ reason,' Tanith reminded her. 'To pretend to be you in front of your parents. It's _not _there to do your homework.'

'Why are you coming over all authority-figure all of a sudden?'

'I'm just looking out for you, that's all,' said Tanith innocently. 'And also I think this will be funny.'

Valkyrie threw a cushion at her, which she dodged.

'Anyway, reflections creep me out,' Tanith called over her shoulder as she left the room. 'I think the less you use it, the better. Is Fletcher still here?'

Valkyrie made a face. 'Yeah. He's upstairs.'

'Get him to help you if it's going to be so torturous.'

'You think he can count?'

'Oi,' said Fletcher, stepping out of thin air in front of her. 'Of course I can count. I'll have you know I got an A in my last maths exam.'

Valkyrie visibly brightened. 'Then will you do my homework for me?'

He smirked. 'Ahh, the little girl has homework to do.'

She threw another cushion at him. This one hit the mark. 'Ow,' he said absentmindedly, rubbing his head. 'Oh, look, you've gone and messed up my hair. That was unnecessary.'

'Oh, I'm sooo sorry,' she said sulkily.

'What is it, anyway?' he asked, sitting down beside her. 'Maths?'

'Algebra. Quadratic equations.'

'Oh, is that all?' he said, taking the book from her. 'I could do these in my sleep.'

'Excellent. Do them.'

He looked at her. 'Er, no. Then how will you learn?'

She rolled her eyes. 'Don't you start. C'mon, do you really care about my education that much?'

'Of course,' he said in mock indignation.

'Well then can you do my homework for me so that my reflection can hand it in tomorrow and get an A?' she asked innocently.

He tutted. 'What are you going to do for your exams? Hide me under your desk?'

She laughed.

He looked back at the book. 'I know what I'll do,' he announced. 'I'll teach you how to do them. Because it is my duty to pass on my knowledge to the less fortunate. And because I care.'

She groaned. 'Seriously? It would be so much quicker if you'd just do them for me... Anyway, I bet you're a crap teacher.'

'I'm amazing, actually. It was always my dream to be a teacher before I realised I was a Teleporter and, erm, dropped out of school. Now... do you have a calculator?'

'Eh, no.'

He shook his head. 'You're not even trying, are you? It's okay though. I think I have a calculator on my phone.'

'Great,' she said without enthusiasm.

He flipped a few pages. 'Which questions are you supposed to be doing?'

Valkyrie sighed. 'Are you just doing this to annoy me?'

'I already told you why I'm doing it. It's because I care so much. What page?'

She sighed again. 'Ninety-three.'

He turned to page ninety-three. 'The whole page?'

'Yep.'

'Okay,' he said. 'Pen and paper please.'

She snorted and handed him her maths copy and a pen. He tapped the first question with the pen. 'Do you know how to do this?'

'Er, we've already established that I don't know how to do them, Mr Mathematical Genius.'

'Okay, well, first of all, you have to simplify it... I think. Hang on a sec.' He started scribbling in her maths copy. Valkyrie peered over his shoulder.

'You have really terrible handwriting,' she remarked.

'Shut up. Okay, now you have to add the x's and the y's...'

Valkyrie's concentration drifted and she found her attention on him rather than what he was writing. Since she spent most of her time trying to ignore him, she'd never really had a chance to look at him closely, but now that he wasn't paying attention she had the opportunity to stare. She let her eyes roam over his face. She had to admit, he was good-looking. He had surprisingly long eyelashes, smooth, tanned skin and his lips - no, she wasn't going to think about his lips. Still, now that she'd noticed them it was hard to tear her eyes away. There was something strangely hypnotic about them.

He looked up, caught her staring and smirked. 'Something on my face?'

She looked away quickly. 'Yes, actually,' she retorted. 'Oh, no, wait... it's just your nose.'

'What an excellent comeback,' he said, looking back at the paper. 'I really don't know how you think of them. Okay, does this make sense to you?' He gave her the copybook.

She stared at the illegible mess of letters and numbers on the page. 'What is this? Ancient Greek?'

'No, child, it's algebra.'

She hit him half-heartedly with the book. 'Don't call me child, you're only three years older than me. And _how_ is this supposed to make sense?'

He gave an exaggerated sigh and took the book again. 'Okay, I'll explain it again. That's a constant and that's a variable...'

He launched into another algebra lecture and Valkyrie immediately zoned out again. He had a nice voice, she found herself thinking dreamily. She liked his accent. Pity she couldn't understand a word of what he was saying.

'So what's the answer?'

She was jolted back to planet earth. 'What?'

'The answer,' he said patiently. 'What is it?'

She blinked. 'Why are you asking me?'

He rolled his eyes and put the book back in her lap. 'Try and work it out.'

'How am I supposed to do that?' she whined. 'I don't even know how to do these bloody things.'

'I've simplified it out for you and everything, all you need to do is add that and that,' he said, his finger moving across the page. 'And then you add that and that, and then you add the two numbers together. See?'

'Umm...' Valkyrie forced herself to concentrate. 'Okay. Wait, what number's that?'

He blinked. 'Er, that's an eight.'

'It doesn't look anything like an eight. It looks like... what would happen if a three and a five had a baby.'

He laughed. She forced herself not to think about his laugh.

'I told you your handwriting was crap,' she muttered.

'It _does_ look like an eight,' he insisted. 'You're just being... contrary.'

'Contrary,' she snorted. 'Now you really do sound like a teacher.'

He beamed. 'See, I told you I'd be amazing at this!'

She had to laugh. 'Seriously, though, I can't read your handwriting.'

'You can,' he said stubbornly. 'You're just pretending.'

'No, I swear... will you _please_ just do it for me?' she asked, pouting up at him.

'I could _half _do it for you,' he said thoughtfully.

'How?'

He reached over and wrapped his fingers around her hand, which was holding the pen, and embarrassingly, she felt her face heat up. His hand guided her across the page and she found herself writing "12x + -3y."

'There,' he said, letting go of her hand. It was all tingly from his touch. 'That's the answer.'

She frowned. 'What was the point of that?'

'Well, I didn't want to _completely _do it for you,' he said nonchalantly, 'so I thought maybe I should let you hold the pen.'

She laughed. 'How thoughtful of you. Can we stop now?'

'No way,' he said, grinning. 'There's still forty-two questions to go.'

She groaned.


	2. Conversations with Tanith

**Thank you so much for your reviews :DD** **I hope you enjoy this and I apologize for any OOCness and stuff.**

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Valkyrie had never really realised before just how rare it was for her to have a good, long conversation with Tanith. It felt like she hadn't spoken to her in weeks. They were having dinner at Tanith's house and Valkyrie had finally managed to relax for the first time in ages. She had also finally gotten the opportunity to badger Tanith about Ghastly.

'Why don't you just say something?' Valkyrie persuaded her.

'Because,' said Tanith vaguely. 'There's loads of time. I'm in no rush.'

'You're scared.'

'I am not scared!'

'The great Tanith Low is scared.'

'Shut up,' mumbled Tanith through a mouthful of spaghetti. 'How do you even know, anyway? I don't remember ever telling you I liked him.'

'It's obvious,' said Valkyrie, rolling her eyes. 'Even Fletcher's noticed. It's the reason he's given up trying to flirt with you.'

Tanith saw an opportunity to change the subject and seized it. 'Oh, he's noticed, has he? Has he also noticed that you are besotted with him?'

Valkyrie went amusingly scarlet. 'I'm not besotted with anyone!'

'The great Valkyrie Cain is besotted with Fletcher Renn.'

'Oh, I see what you did there. Very funny. Not.'

'It's true, though. It's obvious. Even Ghastly's noticed.'

'I don't like where this conversation is going,' said Valkyrie to herself.

'Why don't you just say something?' asked Tanith innocently.

Valkyrie pointed her fork at her. 'Because there's loads of time. I'm in no rush.'

Tanith laughed.

'Seriously, though,' said Valkyrie. 'I don't like him.'

'Nonsense,' said Tanith. 'You fancy the arse off him. It was so cute the other day when he was helping you with your maths homework. I think he likes you too, you know. He wouldn't have bothered doing that if he didn't.'

'Nah, I doubt it,' said Valkyrie. 'He's three years older than me. Not that I care,' she added quickly.

Tanith grinned. 'Nothing wrong with older guys. Besides, there's a lot more than three years between me and Ghastly.'

'That's different,' said Valkyrie, winding spaghetti around her fork. 'You're both old anyway.'

'Oi,' said Tanith. 'I suppose you're right, though. Still, I think it'd be nice for you to be with someone a bit more mature, you know?'

'Fletcher is the opposite of mature,' said Valkyrie. 'And anyway, he thinks I'm too young to appreciate his charms.'

Tanith winked at her. 'And are you?'

'Shut up! He's an annoying prat!'

'Yeah, but he's a_ good-looking_ annoying prat.'

'Why don't you just marry him?'

'Ew, no.'

'See?' said Valkyrie. 'Now do you see what I mean?'

Tanith rolled her eyes. 'Val, there is nothing wrong with you fancying Fletcher. No-one is going to persecute you for it. It's perfectly natural. The sooner you admit to it, the better.'

'Why?' said Valkyrie. 'Because acceptance is the first step to recovery?'

'No, because acceptance is the first step to you two getting married and having adorable blonde babies.'

Valkyrie stabbed a meatball with her fork. 'I hate you.'

Tanith smiled.

'So you're saying that if me and - _him_ got together, no-one would shun me or slag me for having no taste?'

'Of course not,' said Tanith. 'The great thing about you, Val, is that you don't care what other people think about you. That's how you got all those people's respect in the first place. It's like if Beyoncé started going around in Clarabelle's cow wellies. Everyone else would start wearing cow wellies just to be like Beyoncé. Do you get me?'

'Er,' said Valkyrie. 'Are you saying that if I went out with Fletcher, everyone else would start dating annoying blond guys who can teleport?'

'Well, not exactly,' said Tanith. 'What I'm saying is that no-one would judge you for it, because you're Valkyrie Cain and you do what you like.'

'Okay,' said Valkyrie. 'I still don't fancy him, though.'

Tanith grinned.

'What?' said Valkyrie defensively. 'I don't!'

'Sure, whatever,' said Tanith knowingly. 'He's not that bad, you know. I mean, he was a prat when we first met him, but he's actually quite nice when you get to know him, isn't he?'

'No.'

'Okay,' said Tanith. 'Whatever you say.'

Valkyrie sighed. 'Stop smirking like that.'

'Valkyrie and Fletcher, sitting in a tree - '

'Stop it!'

Tanith laughed. 'Okay, okay,' she said, getting up to put the dishes in the sink. 'I'll stop. But I'm still right,' she called over her shoulder. 'And you know it.'

Valkyrie didn't say so, but she had a horrible feeling that she _did _know it.


	3. Arguments

'Depressed?'

Valkyrie turned, startled. She'd been sitting on her bed in Gordon's spare room with her head in her hands, staring at the floor. She hadn't realised there was someone else in there with her. Fletcher was standing in the doorway.

'No,' she said defensively. 'I'm fine.'

He raised an eyebrow. She looked at the floor, wishing he'd go away.

'It's okay, you know,' he said. 'I get like that sometimes. Everyone does.'

She sighed. 'Why are you being like this?'

'Like what?'

'All... oh, I don't know... nice.'

He looked a bit hurt. 'You think I'm acting?'

She shrugged. 'I'm just confused, that's all. I thought we didn't like each other. I thought you didn't want to be here, I thought you didn't care.'

'Well, I do,' he said. 'Now that I've gotten to know you all and stuff, I kind of want to help. And anyway, it's not like I really have anything else to do.'

She couldn't argue with that.

'But it's okay,' he went on. 'I'll go if you want me to.'

'I don't want you to go,' she said reluctantly. 'We need you to help us find the skull and then open the portal.'

He half-smiled. 'Well, in that case, we might as well make an effort to get along because it's going to be torture otherwise.'

'Fine,' she muttered. 'I'm sorry. Thank you for your concern.'

He seemed satisfied. 'Now are you really okay?'

'I told you, I'm fine,' she insisted, trying to adjust to his new personality. 'There's nothing wrong. Apart from the obvious. So stop asking.'

He held up his hands. 'Okay, okay. Sorry. You just looked upset, that's all.'

She said nothing, just stood up and brushed past him out the door.

'Why are you so determined not to like me?' he called after her.

She didn't answer.

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**A/N: I know they were getting on much better in the last two chapters, but I felt like there should be a bit of tension**... **it wasn't all sunshine and roses, after all xD **

**Thank you so much for all your reviews! Sorry this chapter is so short, next one will be longer. (But not too long.) Please tell me if you think there's any OOCness... I personally think Fletcher is too nice, but whatever...**


	4. Skittles

It was dark, and Valkyrie was trudging home after a tough day's work. Despite her tiredness, however, her spirits were slightly higher than they'd been the day before. Every day brought them a tiny bit closer to the skull, and although she was still missing Skulduggery and worrying about him constantly, it was good to know that they were making progress.

Haggard was deserted, and strangely eerie-looking in the glow of the streetlights. The rain had stopped a few hours ago, but it had left everything shining. It reminded her of something Fletcher had said once. Something about rain and streetlights... She shook her head, annoyed at herself. Why did he keep coming into her head?

_'It's quite pretty up here. All the streetlights. The rain makes everything kind of glitter, doesn't it?'_

That had been it.

Not that it mattered.

Strange thing for him to say, though. It was kind of poetic. He'd definitely never struck her as a poetic person.

Not that she cared.

She sighed. After an exhausting day filled with non-stop thinking and planning, there was nothing more she wanted than to clear her brain of all thoughts, but that clearly wasn't happening. This whole stupid thing with Fletcher was always at the back of her mind, creeping to the front whenever she didn't have anything more important to think about.

_I don't like him,_ she thought in a determined attempt to put a stop to the nonsense once and for all. _I really, really don't like him with an extremely strong and powerful dislike bordering on hatred. He's annoying, he's stupid, he's arrogant, and when all this is over and we have Skulduggery back he'll go off and I'll never have to see him again and that'll be the end of it._

She blinked.

Was that really going to happen?

Did she really want that to happen?

No, she didn't.

Yes, she did.

Why did everything have to be so bloody confusing?

Something hit her in the back of the head.

She whirled around just in time to see a packet of Skittles bounce off her and land on the ground. Fletcher Renn stood there, grinning.

'Taste the rainbow,' he said.

She stared at the Skittles, then back at him. 'What the hell?'

He shrugged. 'Well, it got your attention, didn't it? They're for you, by the way, in case you didn't realize.'

'You are so weird,' she said, and picked them up. 'Thank you, by the way.'

'You're welcome.'

She started walking in the direction of her house, and he fell into step beside her. 'Going home?'

'Eh, yeah.'

'It's a bit late, isn't it? What'll your parents say?'

She sighed. 'They're not in. They've gone to Galway for the weekend.'

'So you have a free house?'

She frowned. 'I don't like where this is going.'

He laughed. 'Relax. I was just wondering if... well... ' He trailed off.

Suddenly, she realized. 'You don't have anywhere to sleep tonight, do you?'

He said, 'Well, I could just go to a random hotel, but I've been kicked out of all the ones I know, so I'd have to find a new one, and that could take me a while, and it's late, and...'

She sighed. 'Go on, then. You can have the spare room. You are so lucky my parents are out.'

He beamed. 'You're the best, you know that?'

She was glad it was dark and he couldn't see her blushing. 'Yeah, I get that a lot.'

'I'm sure you do,' he said solemnly.

'You just got me the Skittles to sweeten me up, didn't you? I think you could do better than that next time. Like maybe a yacht.'

He laughed. 'I'll keep that in mind. But they weren't a bribe, I promise. I just bought them for you out of the goodness of my heart.'

'Yeah, sure. Whatever.'

'And you should eat them, or else I'll get offended.'

She sighed again, and opened the packet. 'Well, we can't have that.'

He grinned. 'Exactly.'

She took a handful and put them in her mouth, then offered him the packet. He said, 'Aww, you're sweet,' and took some, and they were silent for a while.

'So did it work?' he asked after a while.

'Oh, so you _did _have an ulterior motive,' she responded archly. 'The goodness of your heart, my arse.'

'If wanting to get into your good books counts as an ulterior motive, then yes I did.'

'And why do you want to get into my good books? Oh yeah, so that I'll offer you a place to stay for the night. That definitely counts as an ulterior motive as far as I'm concerned.'

'Well,' he said slowly, 'that was part of it.'

She popped another Skittle into her mouth - a yellow one - and asked curiously, 'So what was the rest of it?'

She saw his eyes flicker to hers in the dark. 'Well... we haven't been getting on too well lately, have we?'

'Why do you say that? Because I want to strangle you most of the time?'

He laughed. 'Well, yeah. That's why I bought you the Skittles. As kind of like a peace offering or something.'

She exhaled. 'Fair enough.'

'So did it work?'

'I suppose it did.'

'And obviously you're doing me a huge favour by letting me stay in your house,' he went on with an angelic smile. 'I'm very very grateful.'

'Don't overdo it.'

He laughed. 'Okay. Your tongue's blue by the way.'

'From the Skittles? That's not supposed to happen!'

They had reached her house. Valkyrie stopped at the gate and frowned at the empty packet of Skittles in her hand.

He laughed again. 'Well, you were eating them like twelve at a time.'

'Is it on my teeth?'

'No. But it's on your lips. You must have licked them or something.'

She glared at him playfully. 'Now look what you've done.'

He laughed. 'It's only a bit of blue stuff, it's not poisonous.'

'I probably look like I've been shifting a Smurf.'

'Shifting?'

She sighed. 'It's an Irish thing. Look it up.'

'Here, I've got some tissues,' he said unexpectedly, and pulled them out of his pocket. She took one and dabbed at her lips.

'It's not working,' Fletcher said unhelpfully.

Valkyrie's brain suddenly decided to go on holiday. 'Fine then,' she said, 'you do it.'

As soon as the words left her mouth she wanted to take them back, but he just smirked. 'All right then,' he said, taking the tissue off her and proceeding to scrub her mouth with it. She couldn't help laughing.

He kept at it for about half a minute, occasionally brushing her lips with his fingers, and for some reason she was sure he was doing it on purpose even though he was wearing the most innocent expression she'd ever seen him wear. Her heartbeat sped up. How she hated him.

'Done,' he said.

She rolled her eyes. 'That was completely unnecessary, but thank you.'

He tried to look wounded. 'All the things I do for you and you never appreciate them.'

She suddenly got a closer look at the tissue in his hand. 'Wait a minute... that tissue's clean. My lips weren't blue at all, were they?'

He laughed. 'Gotcha.'

'I hate you.'

'Oi! What about my peace offering?'

'I'll tell you where you can shove your - '

'Is this your house key?' he interrupted, taking it out of her hand. 'Excellent.' He unlocked the door and held it open for her. 'Ladies first.'

She sighed and walked past him into the house.

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**A/N: Okay, I know that was not very accurate Skittlewise (as far as I'm aware, they don't stain your tongue... but raspberry bonbons do. And so do those seriously hardcore sour lollipops that make your mouth feel like it's on fire.) Artistic licence?  
Also, even if your lips DID get stained blue from eating Skittles, I don't know if you could get rid of it using a tissue. But enough about me getting things wrong.  
I know this is technically a romance story, but I'm actually trying to stick with canon for once, so it's just leading up to the moment where they actually kiss in Dark Days. So basically, nothing is going to happen. (Hahaha, I can just see your outraged faces...) Don't worry, there will be fluff and, you know, discovering of feelings type stuff. Just no actual snogging. You can live with that, can't you? xD  
****Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! :DD**


	5. Tea

Valkyrie had a nightmare.

In her dream, she could see Skulduggery in the alternate dimension, being chased by a million Faceless Ones. He took out his gun, tried to shoot them, but the bullets went straight through them and they all laughed in unison, a horrible rusty sound that wasn't like laughter at all. Then they swooped down on him like a cat pouncing on a mouse and ripped him apart, tearing his bones away from each other until he was no longer able to scream.

Her eyes flew open and she sat up, shivering even though the room was warm. The previous day's optimism drained out of her and suddenly she wanted to cry. Skulduggery was probably being tortured right now and it could still be months before they found the skull. How much more pain would he have to endure before they finally succeeded?

She washed and dressed on autopilot, her mind somewhere else completely, then trudged downstairs to have breakfast. She stuck some bread in the toaster, then she heard a noise behind her and she whirled. Fletcher was standing there.

'Jesus Christ!' she gasped. 'You nearly gave me a heart attack!'

He grinned. 'Sorry.'

'What are you even doing here?'

'Er, you let me stay here last night? Remember that, Blue Lips?'

'Oh yeah,' she muttered. She turned back to the toaster. 'And shut up about that. It was so not funny.'

'You're right,' he said cheerfully. 'It wasn't funny.'

She frowned. 'You agree with me?'

He nodded. 'It was _hilarious.'_

She sighed and didn't bother replying, just scraped some butter onto her toast with unnecessary force and took the plate over to the table. She did her best to avoid eye contact with him. She couldn't let him see that she was on the verge of tears.

'Do I get breakfast?' he asked hopefully.

She let her hair fall over face, obscuring it from view. 'You're a Teleporter, if you want breakfast go teleport somewhere else and get it.'

'That's a bit rude,' he said. 'I don't think much of your hospitality, actually. First you forget I'm here, then you say I'm not funny, then you refuse to serve me breakfast? If you were a hotel, you'd be out of business.'

Her lips twitched. Thankfully he couldn't see it.

He sat down opposite her and said more seriously, 'Are you OK?'

'Fine,' she mumbled, embarrassed. The lump in her throat was almost painful.

He looked at her. 'No, you're not.'

A hot tear ran down her cheek and she got up quickly and turned away under the pretext of putting her plate in the dishwasher, but it was too late. He'd seen.

'D'you want me to make you a cup of tea?' he asked quietly, in a tone she'd never heard him use before. He actually sounded sympathetic.

She shrugged, still with her back to him. 'I don't care what you do.'

She heard the kettle being switched on and a teabag dropping in the mug, but she couldn't look around. Her cheeks were wet with tears. She tried to surreptitiously wipe them away, feeling like an idiot. It had been ages since she'd last cried. And all because of a stupid dream.

'We were getting on so well yesterday,' he said lightheartedly, obviously trying to lighten the mood. 'And now look. I think I'm going to have to get you another peace offering. Or maybe you should get me one this time. It's your turn.'

She heard the water pouring into the mug. It was a strangely comforting sound.

'I get that you're upset,' Fletcher said awkwardly. 'I mean, I know you two are good friends, and it's all been a bit...'

'Yeah.'

'But we _will_ get him back,' he went on.

She was suddenly annoyed. 'Oh, what do _you _know?'

He was silent, and she knew she'd hurt him. A strange mixture of guilt and satisfaction swirled inside her.

'You're right,' he said quietly. 'I don't know much. But can you give me a break? I'm just trying to make you feel better.'

'Right,' she muttered. 'Sorry.'

He added milk to the tea and slid it towards her. She had to turn to take it, and he saw her swollen eyes. His face softened again.

'It's OK,' he said. 'Don't apologize.'

His sympathy just made her want to cry more. She fought hard against the tears and drank some tea, but the lump in her throat nearly made her choke. She wished this uncharacteristic outburst of emotion had come at a more convenient time.

'So when are we meeting Tanith and Ghastly?' he asked in a desperate attempt to steer the conversation into less upsetting waters.

'As soon as I'm finished breakfast,' she said without looking at him. 'And, I don't know...' She glanced at her red-eyed, tear-stained reflection in the window. 'I should probably wash my face or something so I look normal.' She looked away, embarrassed at having to admit that she was crying.

'It's not good to bottle up your feelings,' Fletcher said helpfully. 'I saw that on Jeremy Kyle. Maybe you should just, like, cry it out before we go, get it all out of your system, and then you'll feel better.'

'I don't need to cry it out.'

'I'm not judging.'

She just nodded, turning away from him again and scrunching up her face against the fresh flood of tears she knew was coming. All the pain and worry and grief and despair she'd been suppressing for so long was rising up inside her like a tidal wave. She wanted to sob, to shake, to scream.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her arm and that was all it took. She burst into tears.

Wordlessly, Fletcher turned her to face him and hugged her, and she sobbed into his shoulder for what seemed like hours while he rubbed her back and shhhed her. Out of stubbornness, she didn't want him to make her feel better - she would rather it was anyone but him - but there was something so comforting about his warmth and his smell and the steady rhythm of his heartbeat that eventually the tears stopped and her sobs subsided.

They parted slowly, reluctantly, Valkyrie secretly thinking about how nice it would be to just stay in his arms forever, but her misery had given way to resolve. She wiped her eyes.

'Better?' he asked.

She nodded, managed a smile. 'This never happened, okay?'

He wiped a tear off her cheek with his thumb, sending something like an electric shock through her system. 'Okay.'

She went into the bathroom, splashed her face with water, got rid of all the evidence, and went back into the kitchen looking transformed. Fletcher smiled and took her hand, and then they vanished.

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**A/N: Oh, hello, fancy seeing you here. As always, thanks a million to the people who reviewed so far :D And I'm sorry, I know Val's sudden angst attack was a bit... erm... sudden, and also kind of OOC, but c'est la vie. Whatever that means.**


	6. Phone

'You know,' said Fletcher to Valkyrie as they walked down the dark road on the way to her house, 'we should probably get each other's numbers.'

She frowned. 'What?'

'You know,' he said hastily, 'in case of emergencies. Or, like, you might need me for something. I don't know.'

'OK,' she said, passing him her phone. 'Whatever.'

He handed her his own phone, and started tapping at hers. 'Not that I actually want your number or anything,' he informed her, his eyes on the screen. 'It's just, it might come in handy.'

'Yeah,' she mumbled, trying to figure out how to add a new contact on his insanely expensive, state-of-the-art smartphone.

'You might as well give me Tanith's while you're at it,' he added cheekily.

'No,' she said flatly.

He shrugged. 'Ah well, it was worth a try.'

His unrequited love for Tanith was beginning to irritate Valkyrie for some reason. 'Haven't you noticed she's interested in Ghastly?' she demanded, finally locating the 'Add Contacts' screen and starting to type in her number.

'Well, yeah,' he said matter-of-factly, 'but I can dream, right? She is a _goddess_.'

Alarmingly, Valkyrie felt a pang of something she didn't quite recognize. Trying her best to ignore this new and unwelcome feeling in her stomach, she typed her name in over the number and pressed Save. 'New contact successfully saved' appeared on the screen, and she was redirected to Fletcher's contacts list. It was empty apart from her name, Ghastly's name and the names of a few people who'd been training him. He must have deleted everyone from his previous life. She wondered why. Was he that desperate to forget about it all?

She glanced over at him, but he wasn't looking at her - he was playing Angry Birds on her phone. It was strange to think how little she knew about him. They'd known each other for about eight months now, and he already knew a fair bit about her. He knew her given name, he knew a lot about her family and her past, and now it appeared he knew her phone number. But she still knew virtually nothing about him, and he certainly wasn't giving anything away.

Mentally, she shrugged it off and returned to the home screen of his phone. It wasn't like she cared, anyway, she reminded herself.

'Ah, bloody pigs,' Fletcher muttered, exiting out of Angry Birds, and they swapped phones. 'Thanks.'

'This had better be your real phone number, now,' said Valkyrie warningly.

'Of course it is. What do you take me for? Ring it if you don't believe me.'

She didn't bother.

They had reached her front gate by this point, and they stopped in front of it. 'Well, goodnight,' Fletcher said awkwardly.

She was already turning away. 'See you.'

'Don't miss me too much,' he called after her as she walked up the drive.

She caught herself smiling, but it was okay - it was dark, and he couldn't see her.

_I'll try not to, _she thought, and she let herself into the house.


	7. Mistletoe

**Hi.**

**I don't even know what I'm doing any more.**

**I should not be allowed to write romance.**

**Anyway, here you go.**

* * *

It was Christmas, but it didn't feel like it.

It was Valkyrie's first Christmas without Skulduggery since she'd met him, and she sincerely hoped it would be the last, but she had no way of knowing, and the thought was enough to sap her of any Christmas cheer she might have had. Usually, Valkyrie loved Christmas, but this year was different.

Christmas Day with her family had been the one day off from skull-hunting she'd allowed herself to take, because she couldn't bear the thought of the soulless reflection being there instead of her, and even then she'd sneaked out the window at seven o'clock to do some more research at China's. Now it was the evening of St. Stephen's Day, and they were back at Ghastly's after spending ten fruitless hours searching for the skull in Russia.

Ghastly had cooked them dinner - it turned out he made delicious steak - and then disappeared into the shop with Tanith to show her the boots he'd been making for her. This left Valkyrie and Fletcher to do the washing up.

"You wash, I'll dry," he said to her.

"No, you wash. I'll dry."

"I prefer drying."

"If you wash, you get to mess with the washing up liquid."

He paused. "True. OK, deal."

She smirked and picked up the tea towel while Fletcher emptied half the bottle of washing-up liquid into the sink.

"Sorry I didn't get you anything," he said after a few minutes of quiet scrubbing.

She frowned. "What, for Christmas?"

"Yeah."

"I wasn't expecting you to. I didn't get you anything either, remember."

He just shrugged and proceeded to squirt washing-up liquid in the shape of a smiley face onto a plate.

"You are so childish," she told him. "It's hard to believe you're eighteen."

He grinned and threw the dishcloth at her. It hit her on the side of the head. She threw it back at him, aiming for his hair. It hit the mark. She laughed at his horrified expression.

"Now who's childish?" he grumbled as he looked at his reflection in the tap and attempted to fix his hair.

"Still you."

He sighed and went back to rinsing spoons."Are you OK?" he suddenly asked after a few minutes.

"You ask that a lot."

"You just seem kind of sad. You shouldn't be sad on Christmas."

She sighed. "Don't worry about me."

"Is there anything I can do to - oh," he said, a grin starting to form on his face as his gaze moved upwards for some reason. "I think there is."

He motioned upwards and she saw the mistletoe over their heads.

Her heart suddenly started beating a thousand times faster. "Erm, are you joking?"

He laughed and went back to the dishes. "It's not a big deal. Just a peck on the lips. Tanith and Ghastly did it."

"Yeah, but everyone knows how much they secretly fancy each other..."

He winked at her. "And you don't secretly fancy me?"

She felt her cheeks heat up and she turned away quickly. "In your dreams," she retorted, scrubbing another plate dry with unnecessary force to cover her embarrassment.

He made smoochy noises, teasing her, and she threw the tea-towel at him. He wasn't discouraged.

"C'mon, Val, it's a Christmas tradition. Anyway, you can't just let your reflection get all the action."

She wished she hadn't told him about Gary Price.

She sighed. "If I do this, will you shut up?"

He grinned. "Yep."

"Okay," she muttered. "Fine."

He stepped closer and butterflies fluttered in her stomach. She stood there, with no idea what to do. Was he just messing with her? Was she dreaming? Should she close her eyes? She thought she probably should. Or should she wait?

He leaned in very slowly, and she stayed still. She could feel his breath on her cheek, could almost count his eyelashes. She suddenly had to fight down an extremely uncharacteristic urge to giggle. And then their lips were almost touching, and she closed her eyes -

- just as the door opened and Ghastly and Tanith walked back in.

They sprang apart. Valkyrie grabbed the tea-towel and started casually drying a handful of knives, while Fletcher picked up the washing-up liquid, then realized there was nothing left to wash, so he put it back down again. It was probably the worst acting Valkyrie had ever seen, which was why she wasn't surprised when Tanith wiggled her eyebrows at them in a knowing manner.

"Did we interrupt something?" she asked innocently.

"No," said Valkyrie, a tiny bit too defensively.

"You're the only one for me, Tanith, you know that," said Fletcher cheerfully.

"Hmmm," said Tanith, seemingly unconvinced. "Anyway, I'd better be going. Thanks for dinner, Ghastly. Shall I see you all back here tomorrow?"

They all nodded, and Tanith picked up her helmet. "Need a lift home, Val?"

"I'll bring her," said Fletcher.

"OK, bye then," said Tanith before heading out into the night.

Fletcher looked at Valkyrie. "Ready to go?"

She picked up her coat and put it on. "Yep. Thanks, Ghastly."

"No problem. Goodbye, you two," he replied.

Fletcher took her hand. "See you," he said, and they teleported.

Valkyrie shivered as the cold night air hit her. They were standing at her front gate.

"Talk about bad timing," he grinned as he let go of her hand. It took her a second to figure out what he meant, then she realized he was talking about the mistletoe incident.

"I'm sure I didn't miss out on much," she said dryly.

"You did. Trust me."

She half-expected him to offer her another kiss, but it seemed the moment had passed. She tried not to look too disappointed.

There was a few minutes of companiable silence, listening to the wind whistling through the trees, neither wanting to leave despite the cold.

"Well, I suppose I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yep," she said and was about to turn and walk into the house when he said, "Wait," and she turned back to him. She felt his warm lips press against her freezing cheek, making her heart thud and her skin tingle, and then he was gone.

She took a deep breath and went inside.

* * *

**A/N: They're so OOC it's tearing me apart inside. **

**If anyone has any suggestions/ideas, please give them to me. Please.**

**And on that slightly desperate note... thank you for reading! :)**


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